Pierre van der Westhuyzen never had to look far for his Olympic inspiration - he grew up sharing a bedroom with his sporting hero.
And on the occasions when a little more pump-up is in order, there is always Lenny Kravitz and his slick guitar riffs.
The Actuarial Science student and his Olympic champion brother Jean have become the first two Bondies selected for this year’s Paris Games.
A lifetime of following in Jean’s footsteps, or more accurately his wake, has paid off big-time with Pierre’s selection alongside his older brother in the Australian Sprint Canoe team that will race in front of an estimated 24,000-strong crowd at the Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on a stretch of the famous Seine River that flows through the centre of Paris.
Pierre, 20, will race in the K4 500m team while Jean, 25, the K2 1000m gold medallist from Tokyo, will team up with Tom Green in the more explosive K2 500m and will back-up in the K1 1000m solo event.
"Jean is a big part of my motivation, watching him and what he did in Tokyo,” he said.
“It’s awesome to share this with him, to be on a team with him."
Jean also paved the way for Pierre’s non-sporting pursuits with his experience as a Bond business student (Class of 2018) and within the Bond Elite Sports Program, inspiring his little brother to enrol at his alma mater.
"The main thing about Bond was the Elite Sports Program and just how flexible they are,” Pierre said.
“Jean was able to cater his studies around training and it allowed him to balance the elements, prioritising both.
“And I have had a very similar experience.
"Being able to chase what I want in terms of sport while also getting my studies done has been really good."
A major struggle for many athletes is often figuring out how to balance sport and other areas of life.
There are no armchair rides to the Olympics. Training on the Gold Coast’s canals is brutal and Pierre is lucky to also share a slice of Jean’s toughness which is legendary among the kayaking community.
"It gets hard at times; it's about riding the roller coaster,” Pierre said.
“I think you just have to take life as it comes, be flexible, and adapt and sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
"You have to have that toughness; you have to push through the hard times. Train harder when it might seem like someone's a little more talented than you.
“Hard work will always pay off in the end."
And when the going gets really tough, or the pre-race nerves are humming so hard you can hear them, there’s always Lenny.
"We tend to jam out to music and get the vibes going, just distract ourselves from the nerves a little bit,” he said.
“Our current pump-up song is Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz.”